Shadows
by Quilliariya
Summary: The icy blades stopped. The sound of iron clanging on the ground echoed as Gajeel's arm fell, hitting the icy pavement. "Ame-onna,"he whispered, his eyes agape. "Juvia. . ." the name died on his lips. "Is dying?" [[Semi-Gruvia]]


**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

**Warning: may contain spoilers. And contains large amounts of swearing, because well, I cuss a lot. **

XxX

"You bastard," Natsu said valiantly, fury prominent in his gaze. "You sick bastard. Gray, I believed in you."

"That's what you get for believing in people too much, Dragneel," Gray Fullbuster replied, returning the gaze the dragon slayer sent him. "You always were a idiotic motherfucker, believing in the light and sacrificing yourself for it."

"You were like that too, you hell of a hypocrite!" Natsu shouted, his fist bursting into flames and his hair bobbing at the sheer force of his strength. "You fucking died for Juvia man, Lyon told us that. You protect your comrades. You get us out of nasty situations. You turned Ultear from evil to good! Don't you dare call me idiotic because—"

Natsu leapt to the side, skidding as his hand forced himself to stop. Blades of ice slashed past the wall behind him, effectively breaking it into pieces. "What the hell?"

"Stop speaking," Gray told him darkly, red eyes glinting in their sockets. "You have no right to speak to a member of Avatar like that." A wave of icicles made their way towards Natsu, and he dodged them, flinging himself in the air and avoiding another wave directed at him from the side. In his fury, he let out a burst of fire, the heat whispering at the ice to melt.

In a haze of ice and fire, steam erupted, and the two were left without seeing the other. Natsu squinted, his ears twitching, sensing any movement. His nose flicked up and down, searching for the familiar scent of the ice mage. Something was off, however—his smell was the same, but it seemed tainted somehow. What was once clean and pure was dashed with something that he could place anywhere, from Master Jose's odor to Zeref's.

This wasn't the Gray he grew up with.

"You too started without me," a deep voice boomed from afar, a familiar snarky tone at the edges. "Damn, you two never change, do you?"

"Gajeel," Natsu said in greeting, watching as the faint silhouette of the iron dragon slayer passed through the steam, the smoke moving aside as if creating a path for him. "You. . . found us."

"Levy did her homework," Gajeel replied, smirking. "Salamander, you haven't improved a bit! You're still as ugly as I've last seen you." He sneered at Gray, who was standing in front of the two, his arms crossed and a glare fixed on his face. "And you, I see you've been keeping your clothes on, eh stripper?"

"You're still a blunt chunk of metal," Natsu told the metal man. "But I can see you did something to your hair."

Gajeel ran a hand through his short locks, rolling his scarlet eyes as he did so. "The long hair kinda became a hassle," he said, dead set on his decision. "Now, tell me, Salamander," the man cracked his knuckles in a manner familiar to all three of them, and a devilish grin formed on his face. "What the fuck do we have here?"

Natsu directed his intense glare at Gray, who raised a nonchalant eyebrow at him. "What do you want?" The ice mage asked sharply, curling and uncurling his hands as he did so. "You want a fight, I'll give you two a fight."

"Something tells me this ain't a friendly battle," Gajeel commented, glancing at the both of them. "What the hell is wrong with the stripper? His scent's off."

"I figured as such," Natsu said, nodding to Gajeel's deduction. "I think the darkness is corrupting him. It's altering his memories, and I think he's forgotten every good thing he's done for us. For Fairy Tail."

A third wave of sharp icicles were sent blasting past the two dragon slayers, and they dodged with ease. Natsu watched as an icicle nearly hit his nose in the process, and he winced as he thought about how much of a pain that would've been. "I can't melt his ice," he told Gajeel, frowning. "This guy trained too much."

"Still talking like I'm not here?" Gray snapped, and two snakes made out of ice emerged from his fingertips, recoiling and wrapping and hissing, trying to get past the defenses of both dragon slayers. "I suppose the two of you are fitted to be together. Both of you are idiots."

"Does the rain woman know about this? Where is she anyway?" Gajeel asked, slicing the snake with what looked like a chainsaw. "I haven't seen that woman since Fairy Tail disbanded."

"Juvia," Natsu started, and he watched as Gray's eyes gleamed as if the name itself was poison, "Juvia isn't doing well," he continued, leaping to the ground as a flurry of dark blades swept past his hair. "She has a fever, and even though Wendy's helping—" dodge. "Her fever won't—" dodge. "Go down."

"What're you trying to say?" Gajeel asked, raising a pierced eyebrow.

Natsu glanced grimly at Gray, who was surprisingly not in his usual ice make position, but was standing coolly in his place, waving his hand about, the ice bending to his will. The man's eyes had turned scarlet, and the darkness covering part of his body seemed to scream its control proudly.

"Juvia's dying," Natsu replied stoicly.

The blades stopped. The sound of iron clanged on the ground as Gajeel's arm fell, hitting the icy pavement. "Ame-onna,"he whispered, his eyes agape. "Juvia," he said again, the thought sinking in. "Is dying?"

"Her magic's uncontrollable. She's releasing waves and waved of tremors that's causing the rain around her village, and the energy inside to control it is wavering," Natsu explained. "Don't ask me, that's just what Wendy said." Gajeel stared at him, dumbfounded. "Her magic is eating her out alive, and without her need to control it, she'll soon die."

A resonating silence filled the air, and Natsu's fists burst in flames, thinking how, just how in the world could a girl so strong weaken just because of the magic power in her body? "Gray," he said sharply, and the ice mage stared at him, the sneer on his face gone. "You're killing her."

"Shut the fuck up!"

To say that the blades that escaped the ice mage's body was a lot was most definitely the understatement of the year. Natsu's body was soon coated with flames, not melting the ice, but redirecting them. Gajeel's steel scales emerged from his body, flowing from his arms to his legs, until he was completely covered by his element. Gray glared at the both of them, a somewhat crazed expression playing in his eyes.

"You're pissing him off, Salamander," Gajeel said, catching Natsu's eye. "Maybe what you said is true."

"GAJEEL!" Gray shouted, another flurry of dark ice heading on forward to execute the iron dragon slayer. Gajeel steeled himself, the blades swishing past his body, barely leaving scratches in its wake.

"You call that strong?" Gajeel shouted back, his signature smirk appearing on his face. "You've turned weak, stripper. You barely even grazed me."

"Go to hell!" Gray shouted back, his figure shaking with anger. "Fuck both of you!"

"Salamander," Gajeel called, and Natsu snapped backward as he heard his signature nickname. The pink-haired man tilted his head to the side in slight curiosity.

"What?"

"This aura, I've sensed it before," Gajeel said, observing The way Gray writhed in front of him, as if his very own body was on fire. No words escaped the demon slayer's mouth, but he was gritting his teeth in what seemed like pure agony, his hands digging their way into his chest, nearly drawing blood as he trailed them past his collarbone, to his neck, to his locks. "I've seen it happen before."

"What?"

Gajeel smacked his hand on his forehead, slightly irked that the fire dragon slayer was as slow as ever. "I'm saying, I know this event."

"Yeah, but what?"

"Are you stupid or what?"

"You're saying what too, you idiot."

"You're the idiot."

"You wanna go, Redfox?"

The two dragonslayers butted foreheads, their eyes burning with the desire of pummeling the other to the ground. Heated glares and fists were soon raised, only to be interrupted by a tortured scream.

Natsu and Gajeel glanced at Gray, whose hands were desperately clawing at the darker side of his body. His face was contorted in pain and he looked so close to breaking sanity. Gajeel snapped back to reality, and with great disappointment, he pushed away from Natsu, crossing his arms and trying to regain professionalism.

"Right, as I was saying," Gajeel started. His perfect imitation of a certain solid script mage tempted Natsu to laugh. "This happened before. With Rogue."

"Rogue?"

Flashbacks ran through Natsu's mind, the distant face of future Rogue's face emerging from his memories. A warning about Gray, a warning about death, a warning about change.

"Rogue from the future," he told Gajeel, his eyes suddenly widening in realization. "He said Gray was going to kill Frosch." His eyes widened even more, and Gajeel briefly wondered if those orbs could pop out. "This caused Rogue to become evil! But Gray would never kill Frosch willingly. . ."

"When I was fighting that kid, something possessed him," Gajeel explained, once again resuming his gaze on the despairing demon slayer in front of them, who had stopped his rain of icicle blades. "Something that looked like a shadow."

"Were there marks?" Natsu asked, noting the darkness that had formed on his former friend's body.

"There were marks," Gajeel confirmed, racking his mind for memories. "Dark marks that. . . Covered. . . His. . ."

Both dragon slayers eyes widened in realization, and in an instant, both of them were dashing towards Gray, determination present in their eyes.

"The properties, absorb the properties!" Gajeel shouted, grabbing Gray by the arms and lifting him up as if he were displaying clothing.

"Let go of me," Gray said darkly, kicking the iron dragon slayer in the gut, only to be deflected by steel scales.

"Why don't you do it?" Natsu asked.

"Just fucking do it Salamander!" Gajeel shouted, gripping his arms tighter around the surprisingly not-naked ice mage. "Get him to attack you with his dark shadow ice blade thingies and eat the fucking properties!"

"Attack me? How the fuck do I do that?"

"I don't fucking care!" Gajeel replied, kneeing the ice mage in the back to get him to stop moving for just a fucking moment. "Oi, are you even listening to us?" He asked, and when the man he was gripping made no response, he glared at Natsu to go make the stripper notice them.

"Uhh—uhh," Natsu straightened up, looking Gray straight in the eye. "Let's hope this works," he whispered, breathing in. "Gray," he said seriously, his tone not to be questioned. "I am stronger than you."

There was a brief silence, except for the demon's slayers attempts to escape the death grip of the dark-haired man.

"You idiot," Gajeel told Natsu, deadpanning. "You fucking idiot."

"Gray!" Natsu shouted, and this time, Gray shot up, aiming his red eyes at him. "Juvia's dying, and you're causing her to die. There's nothing we can do about it; she can't be saved."

The resonating sound of "shut the fuck up" filled the icy lair as blades of dark ice shot out of the ice mage's body, again, and Natsu grinned in success as a shower rained past him. Summoning his will, he sucked in, absorbing the shadows in the ice.

Gajeel watched as the darkness disappeared litle by little, a grin on his face as the man he was holding weakened his grip. Natsu burst into flames, his eyes a gleaming blue and scarlet, his absorption successful. Gajeel let go of the limp man, and moved out of range.

"ROAR OF THE," Natsu sucked in, "FIRE SHADOW DRAGON SLAYER!"

Gray made no sound when the attack hit him, his body limping to the side as the mixture of flames and shadows hit him directly. The ice surrounding their haven slowly began to melt, and Natsu and Gajeel shared victorious smirks as vapor rose up, the dark clouds that hung over them disappearing.

Gray groaned as he opened his eyes, the red reverting to its usual black, his hair falling in sleek waved from his head. His body ached every time he moved, and he blinked as he tried to process the blue sky and sun spread out from above.

Two figures blocked his vision, and he squinted as he tried to make out the men looming above him. A man with short, dark, locks, a smirk prominent on his face.. A grinning pink-haired slayer who looked the least bit worn out.

"You back to normal?" Natsu asked, his grin widening even more.

"The hell are you doing up there?" Gray replied, trying to sit up, but failing to do so. "Why the hell does my body hurt like hell?"

"Stop saying hell, stripper," Gajeel said, the two kneeling and actually helping the ice mage sit up. "You've just been there."

"What happened?" Gray asked, and the two dragonslayers sighed.

"Long story," Natsu answered, and he patted the demon slayer on the shoulder. The latter winced. "And it starts with you, and it ends with you. Come on, Juvia's dying."

"She's what?!"

And suddenly all the pain in Gray Fullbuster's body disappeared, and he was pushing himself up. "What happened? Who attacked her? What the fuck—"

"Her magic's eating it out alive," Gajeel answered, repeating Natsu's repeated statement. "Apparently she can't control it."

"Why can't she control it? We were just together, like yesterday! How did this happen?"

"Yesterday," Gajeel scoffed, and Natsu looked at Gray grimly.

"Yesterday, you nearly sliced her body in half."

"I nearly killed her? I would never hurt her!"

"You were possessed, that's what happened, alright? Hurry up, ame onnaneeds you."

XxX

"Gray-sama," Juvia whispered in her sleep, and Wendy looked on helplessly. She placed a cool hand on the water mage's forehead, feeling her temperature.

"Not going down?" Carla said, and Wendy nodded sadly. "She's already giving out and all she can think about is Gray."

"She can't help it," Lucy told the exceed, leaning on Juvia's bed tiredly. "He gave her the sunlight."

It was after she said those words that said man pushed through the door, his raven hair a tangled mess, his eyes wide and his mouth open as he panted.

Behind him stood Natsu and Gajeel, the former's hand in a thumbs-up position and the latter simply looking bored with the world.

Gray staggered forward, limping, nearly tripping on a chair in the process. The water mage looked worse for wear, and he groaned as he fell on her bedside, coughing.

"Gray-san!" Wendy said in surprise, taking in his appearance. "Wait, let me heal—"

"No," Gray interrupted, cutting off the sky maiden. "Save your energy for her."

Wendy looked at him with concern, but followed his command.

"Juvia," the ice mage whispered to her ear, praying that she could hear him. "Wake up. I'm back."

There was silence, and the small group all looked at Juvia, seeing her reaction. There was no response.

Gray sighed, running a hand through his dark locks and gritting his teeth in anger. "This is all my fault," he muttered, clutching her hand in between two of his. He stared at the wooden floor, taking in the markings imbedded in it. She felt cold.

"No, it's not."

He raised his head to meet a pair of glimmering blue eyes.

His eyes watered in guilt, and it took all of his energy not to grab her and hug her to death.

She was alive.

Lucy looked outside, her eyes widening as she took in the sight. Wendy grinned as she ran to the window, opening it.

The sky was as blue as it should be.


End file.
